A 20-year-old California resident, Jefferey Douglas Kimzy, of Santa Barbara, California, was finally identified on Wednesday as the headless body found in the woods in Alabama more than a quarter-century ago, according to officials. The Marshall County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation revealed in a post on Facebook that it was Kimzy’s decomposing body that was discovered in the woods along Little Cotaco Creek in the town of Union Grove on April 15, 1997. Due to the removal of his head, hands, and feet, it was difficult to determine his age or give an accurate description of the victim.
The investigation revealed that the head and hands were cut off using “some type of saw,” while the feet were reportedly gnawed off by animals. In addition, the heart and spleen had been removed with surgical-type skill. “Someone went to great lengths to hide the identity of our victim and the cause of his death,” said Chief Investigator Keith Wilson.
The victim was wearing a Faded Glory short-sleeve shirt and Levi Strauss 501 jeans, and some air fresheners were found near the body. An autopsy revealed that the manner of death was a homicide, and the removal of the body parts was intentionally done to make identification impossible.
The case went cold, but in 2019, samples were sent to Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company that used a process known as DNA phenotyping to create a composite image of the victim in 2021. The sketch generated new leads, and investigators are actively pursuing persons of interest in the case, along with working on DNA related to items found at the scene.
Sheriff Phil Sims thanked all the investigators involved in the case and announced that, with a positive identification, they will be closer to solving the case.
